4 Memorial Day Weekend Events Set for Anderson County

Greg Wilson/Anderson Observer

There are four formal ceremonies in Anderson County to remember the soldiers and their families who paid the ultimate sacrifice.

Sunday in at 6:30 p.m. in Iva, the town will hold an event on at the Memorial Park on the town square, followed on Monday by a 10 a.m. event at the Veterans Monument in Honea Path, Monday a 10 a.m. service at Dolly Cooper Veterans Cemetery and a 10:30 a.m. ceremony at Veterans Park in Pendleton.

County, state and federal offices will also be closed Monday.

Monday is a day for contemplation and appreciation.

Originally called Decoration Day, from the early tradition of decorating graves with flowers, wreaths and flags, Memorial Day is a day for remembrance of those who have died in service to our country. It was first widely observed on May 30, 1868 to commemorate the sacrifices of Civil War soldiers, by proclamation of Gen. John A. Logan of the Grand Army of the Republic, an organization of former Union sailors and soldiers.

During that first national commemoration, former Union Gen. and sitting Ohio Congressman James Garfield made a speech at Arlington National Cemetery, after which 5,000 participants helped to decorate the graves of the more than 20,000 Union and Confederate soldiers who were buried there.

“We do not know one promise these men made, one pledge they gave, one word they spoke; but we do know they summed up and perfected, by one supreme act, the highest virtues of men and citizens. For love of country, they accepted death, and thus resolved all doubts, and made immortal their patriotism and their virtue.”

- James A. Garfield

May 30, 1868 Arlington National Cemetery

This event was inspired by local observances of the day that had taken place in several towns throughout America in the three years after the Civil War. In 1873, New York was the first state to designate Memorial Day as a legal holiday. By the late 1800s, many more cities and communities observed Memorial Day, and several states had declared it a legal holiday. After World War I, it became an occasion for honoring those who died in all of America’s wars and was then more widely established as a national holiday throughout the United States.